Long After Mourning
by Lau-kun
Summary: Let the stars cry tonight as tomorrow comes to dry his tears away. ExT sap with humor as a side dish.


**Long After Mourning**  
By Lau-kun

**Disclaimer: **CCS belongs to CLAMP. Never owned it and never will.

My apologies if some of the texts were bunched together. I swear it wasn't like that when I uploaded it. Thanks for reminding me though!  
To the reviewers, especially VampirePeaches…

Feedbacks are more than welcome.

oOoOoOo

It was one rainy morning of June when Eriol found himself staggering a few paces away from the library. His library. There was something about the privacy behind those varnished oak doors that comforted him. It was cold in England and he needn't remind himself of how unusually cold it was without _her_.

There was a fairly audible creaking sound in the hallway as Eriol opened the door. And in the moment that he stepped in the territory of colossal bookshelves and exaggeratingly ancient artifacts, dated over a thousand years ago, the scent of burning pine and old dusty books welcomed him like a bee would welcome a load of honey. Or at least, that was how it seemed to him.

And apparently, someone was there long before he came in.

"I don't know what it is about you and liquor, Eriol," said a disapproving voice from the shadow of the armrest, "but Kero made it clear for me in one of his letters that Clow Reed had the same problem with sake."

Eriol grunted. "It's not as horrible as one would think it is." A broken smile was all that he could manage. "It calms me and it makes me forget about certain… horrible things."

"Compared to your splitting headaches and unacceptable mannerism in each morning that followed," his tone suggested utter boredom from one man's obvious stupidity, "'horrible' in your steel-pleated skull, Eriol-sama, beats all that define the poor word." The figure from the shadows stood on all fours and there emerged a feline with wings.

"Good evening, Spinel…" Eriol smiled at him and staggered towards his chair.

Spinel Sun watched on; somehow managing to keep his face straight. How he did it, no one would know but at least, his master recognized it as — even in his drunken state — the look that screamed thousands of unspoken words enough to deafen him. Otherwise, Spinel was only determined to keep his dignity intact by not pounding his "exalted" master, making him more miserable than he already was. "Good morning, actually..." the critter stressed then hovered in front of his creator's face with a look that swore he had seen this event dozens of times like Nakuru had watched those dime soap operas in television and cried an ocean in every forsaken instance. "I suggest you go to bed now, Eriol."

"Really, Suppi..." Eriol, in a miserable attempt to make things lighter, pouted. His eyes gave him away though, as it visibly put out a neon sign of "I need some sleep". "Is that how you should welcome your dear creator after a tiring day?" he tried to cuddle an annoyed Spinel and succeeded as the creature moved out of the way a second too late.

"You stink, Eriol." Said the creature dryly; Eriol chuckled and ignored his comment. "You smell of liquor and I bet you a hundred pounds that if your scent reached Nakuru's nostril, she would give you bloody hell and wouldn't stop unless you take her own medication of a bubble bath." Spinel stopped struggling at an after thought, giving way for a shudder as if remembering a torture from a time not long ago. "Three hours is the least." He was about to struggle from his master's viper grip again but (un)fortunately for him, he looked like he was about to fall asleep. "Eriol?"

The "dear creator" as termed, landed graciously on the couch, almost squishing the poor plushie beneath his weight.

A muffled 'ouch' and a sigh was heard afterwards. Obviously, Spinel couldn't react on a rapid pace with Eriol's arm half strangling him already. "Eriol, if you're really certain that you don't want your own creation to dieof suffocation, I suggest you move away now."

He didn't answer.

"Eriol-sama?" Spinel tried again and was answered by a snore.

He sighed hopelessly. Well, it looks like he didn't have much of a choice, given that his all-mighty-master that must have weighed as much as one of those colossal shelves for Spinel's itty-bitty size, had finally been brought down by the Sandman's dusts. Either that or the liquor's effects had finally hit him on the head, and about bloody time already. This wasn't the first time. And to mention numbers, he'd lost count ever since Kaho ran off with, as termed by Nakuru, a hunky air-head (Spinel thought that it was just Nakuru's way to cheer Eriol up since a rocket scientist was hardly an air-head) and added something like it was bloody time too since Kaho's biological clock's ticking out on her (although blunt, to Spinel, that wasn't far from the truth).

Putting everything else aside, it was a sugar-coated break-up which led to a 24 carat kind of mess. Seriously.

It would've been something worth laughing your intestines out but Spinel, as the ever-so-logical-guardian-who-understands-Eriol-more-than-Eriol-himself, knew better than to laugh at that; obviously considering the pitiful and breaking look on his master's face. Spinel could sense that Eriol was terribly shattered by the experience and unlike Nakuru who spends most of her time waggling and hanging around Touya-kun's and Tsukishiro-kun's necks until they turn cyanotic, Spinel prefers to work on finding Eriol's puzzle pieces and determine exactly where it fits. But this was the bottom line. The pieces collected were more than enough for anyone to see the big picture that screamed the phrase "enough was enough". One of the downside of understanding Eriol more than Eriol understood himself was the frightening truth of knowing exactly if he's in pain or in excruciating pain — which he was undoubtedly experiencing at the moment — and Spinel thought, it simply sucks to the core.

For a while now, Spinel was considering a plan of action to rattle some sense in Eriol's freezer that he called a metal brain box — even if they have to do it with a hammer or loads of hollow blocks, justfor the sake of shaking the rotting air inside. "I told you millions of times and I'll tell you again for the last time." Spinel heaved a muffled sigh then transformed into his large plushie version; carrying Eriol on a prone-position on his back. "Don't say I didn't warn you, Eriol."

With that said, he flew towards Eriol's room.

oOoOoOo

"Hm... Is this the three hundred and seventy-eighth time already?" Nakuru bounced in her master's room like a normal three-year old would around an amusement park. "Or is it the three hundred and seventy-ninth?"

Spinel snorted, "Apparently, Eriol-sama had overdosed his self prescription of liquor a time too many." then looked about ready to burst a vein, "And stop calling me _that_, Nakuru."

"Aww... but it suits you too well! With that curly tail and all..." she said, considering the thought of cuddling her cohort but decided against it for another time. Soon. Thirty minutes later perhaps. Spinel, on the other hand, was already recounting his list on how to really pound her good. "No matter!" announced the permanently sugar-high guardian. She looked ready to add something but was immediately halted when Eriol was heard muttering in his sleep.

"Don't... leave... me..." his tone was pleading with a quality enough to instill sympathy from almost everyone. And "everyone" included his guardians who looked like they were ready to do just about anything to make their master bubbly again.

Like he was when Kaho was still around.

Nakuru and Spinel switched concerned and knowing glances as Eriol stirred some more on his bed.

Silence ensued.

And par usual, Spinel was the one who recovered first to pop the balloon. "Nakuru?"

"Yes, Suppi?"

For the first time in his life, he didn't react at the hated name. "Remember the time when you told me that Eriol-sama needs to hit himself with one of the colossal shelves in the library?"

"Actually, I said colossal metal shelves but it's related." Nakuru stared and waited.

Then the critter sighed, "I can't believe I'm saying this but you _do_ have a point."

A pregnant pause followed, until one of them moved to get the cordless phone to attack the numbers as if she was taking precautions to kill somebody (or in this case, something) who's capable of butchering them to smithereens, "Hello, Sakura-chan? Yes we're doing fine right here!" she threw a hesitant look at Eriol, "Well, most of us are. But anyway, To-ya-kun is there, yes?" a thundering sound of protests were heard from the other line. Nakuru gave out a smile that shamed sugar of diabetic quantities. "Say hello and glomp him for meeeee!" said Nakuru with enough cheer, but not enough to mask her worry for Eriol. "Oh... I was wondering... can you use the Move Card to move people from one country to another?"

A pause was heard as Spinel listened intently; hesitantly agreeing to what Nakuru was up to.

"Oh you can't?" a brief disappointed silence. "But you'll _try_ to do something about it? Yes... I see..." Nakuru's face lit up like a glowing Christmas tree. "Oh! That's wonderful!" Nakuru turned towards Spinel and raised one thumb up; grinning like an idiot, if Spinel might add.

And according to that idiotic facial expression, thought Spinel, everything was up for grabs. One doesn't need to be Einstein to unravel exactly what Nakuru wanted. Spinel could only pray for the best no matter how bad everything was at the moment, most especially now that he agreed to help Akizuki Nakuru's brain-hitching plans that backfire most of the time. Anyway, one's dignity wasn't that big a price if it means getting their master back on track, right?

Well, by all things holy, he just hoped that at least a pinch of his dignity would be spared.

_Please._

oOoOoOo

-- Thanks to Walking Green Cucumber for reminding me about the Move Card and Hooty for the bunched text comment.My fault! Cheers!

-- Eh... I don't know where I got this fic. I've written a draft of this one in my LJ but more or less, it's still the same. Your opinions are highly appreciated.


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